Scotland
would satisfy the cardinal requirement of democracy and a respect for human
rights. The number of its members of the European Parliament and of the
Economic and Social Committee, as well as its voting strength in the European
Council, is a matter of simple arithmetic. Most of the rest would be hard
going.

It was going so well up until
that last sentence.I thought it was
going to go on to say that Scotland is already in accord with the acquis communautaire –
I feel a little sad inside!

It does not want to join the eurozone and
would have to negotiate derogation. This is not given lightly since the
beneficiary escapes increasingly tight eurozone discipline.

Actually, that’s massively inaccurate, Scotland
will be a successor state and will inherit the obligations and rights that the
UK has under the treaties.In any case,
new Member States are not obliged to join the euro.Let me introduce you to our good friend
Sweden; joined the EU in 1995 and had a referendum on joining the euro in 2003
where the Swedish people took the opportunity to decline membership of the
euro.The
EU response was, as no-one who reads the Daily Mail would expect, accepting:

"Olle Schmidt (ALDE, SE) inquired whether Sweden
could still stay out of the Eurozone. Mr Rehn replied that it is up to the
Swedish people to decide on the issue."

The idea that any nation would be forced into the
euro was always daft but the idea that the ECB would now want to let
nations in before they were ready and before the eurozone was ready is simply
barking.

The
other member states would ask searching questions about additional financial
regulation and to the Scots, for whom this is a major industry; it would be as
negative as the City of London has been.

Now there’s a sweeping statement putting attitudes and opinions into the heads
of other Member States (I’ll be charitable and assume just their governments)
and ‘the Scots’ (homogenous lot that we are).Why would Scotland “be as negative as the City of London”?A sweeping generalisation of my own – we
Scots, as a nation, understand the need to have financial institutions properly
regulated and that international markets require proper regulation too.

The
Scots would ask to continue to exempt themselves from a contribution to bail-out
funds.

You know, I’d help my neighbour if his house was on
fire and I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t.The eurozone trouble affects us in the sterlingzone and we should be
helping.It’s not as if the funds
contributed are a gift; it’s a loan and we should be helping our neighbours
where we can. I don't think that 'the Scots' would want to turn our backs on our European partners.

As
long as the remaining United Kingdom has not subscribed to the Schengen
agreement on passport-free travel - which means never - Scotland would likewise
stay out. But it would want to obtain a special arrangement for cross-border
travel within the island and with Ireland.

Actually, the
Schengen Agreement is about much more than border control and the UK is
signed up to most of it.London won’t
want to introduce travel restrictions after the UK is no more, and it’ll sign
up to the rest of Schengen in time – in great part because of the trade losses
suffered by UK businesses as a result of not being in the free travel
area.Bulgaria,
Romania and Cyprus still apply border controls for the time being while
non-EU members Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein allow free
movement.

The
Scots would consider that they qualified for a share of the former United
Kingdom's 'Thatcher rebate', which reduces the payment into EU 'own resources'
by two thirds. But the former United Kingdom might have other ideas - and the
EU at large might want to reconsider the rebate 'ex nihilo', its word for a new
start.

Firstly, the rebate is on
its way out.Secondly, it isn’t all
that big; the
rebate in 2010 was €3.56bn which is about £2.9bn or around £46.30 per year
for each person in the UK – less than 13p a day each.On the other hand, Scotland as an independent
nation would keep the 25% of monies collected here for the EU – cash which currently
goes to the Treasury in London.

Additionally, the rebate is (roughly and very
simplified) two thirds of the difference between what the UK puts in and what
it gets out so is essentially 66p coming back for every £1 not claimed through
an EU programme.It’s regarded by UK
politicians as something of a virility symbol, though, which helps explain why
UK Ministers don’t encourage engagement in EU programmes.This is emphasised by the UK Government which points out that “the
UK currently has the lowest per capita receipts from the EU budget”.

Scotland
would be better off without the rebate and taking part in the EU programmes –
so would the UK which receives only €108 per head.

Since Scotland would not be subject to
British law, it would be necessary to re-enact under Scottish law the whole
body of applicable EU legislation. The catalogue would run to thousands of
pages but a Scottish Consolidation Act could perhaps use a general formula.
Surviving opponents of independence could spend weeks combing through the pile
to ask whether specific pieces were in the country's interest.

Here in old Scotland we have our own law already –
we’ve had our own legal system and laws for quite a wee while now; the odd
century or eight – and EU law is already written into it because we’re a
member of the EU.That will continue
after independence and ‘surviving opponents of independence’ already have the
opportunity to ‘spend weeks combing through the pile to ask whether specific
pieces were in the country's interest’ in Holyrood – they don’t, by and large,
because they would be as horrified by the idea as any nationalist would be.

There would be a separate triangular contest over fishing rights. The Scots
would want a piece of the old UK quota, and more. The (old) UK would cling to
most of what it has and the other quota countries would seize the opportunity
to try to recalibrate the system in their favour.

Oh, those devious, underhanded people who’ll stand
up for their nation’s best interests!I’ll bet they’re just waiting, rubbing their hands together and cackling
…

Scotland’s actually quite well respected in
fishing.It was research done at the NAFC Marine Centre in Shetland that
influenced ICES and changed the
way that the EU looked at fish quotas, for example, and the conservation
work initiated by Scottish fishermen has been world-leading.Quotas are negotiated annually and Richard
Lochhead has been in the room for Scotland’s Government the past few years; I’m
sure he’ll be welcomed back representing an independent Scottish Government and
that he’ll do well for Scotland.

Likewise
for the cohesion fund, the Scots would put in a large bid claiming part of the
UK allocation. The new UK would fight back, contending that for domestic
political reasons Scotland had previously been unduly favoured.

That shows a real ignorance of how the
cohesion fund works and an ignorance of the changes coming from 2013
onwards.In fact, it suggests that the
author hasn’t even bothered to look up the web page to see what the cohesion
fund is.

Scotland would nominate a European
Commissioner and a phony job would be created for the appointee.

Madame’s bloomers are showing!As a Member State, Scotland will have the
same right of representation in the Commission as every other Member State.

It
would allege that it would be under-represented in the staffing of the
institutions and would ask for a special recruitment programme.

I would doubt that – Scots are quite well
represented in the staffing of the institutions.

Scots
Gaelic, alongside Irish Gaelic, would become an official but never a working
language.

Actually, Irish is an
“official and working language”.Whether Scotland would press for Gaelic to be added to the list, or
Lallans or Doric or Dundonian or Norn or any of the other languages of Scotland
to enjoy that status is questionable, given that nearly all of our current MEPs
and, one would hope, future MEPs are capable of conversing easily in the
official and working language that most of our nation converses in most of the
time – English.It would be lovely to
have all of our native leids as official and working languages but I don’t
think we’ll be pressing for any of them (Norn least of all).

Beside
all the problems of separating Scotland from the UK - the monarchy, the
currency, the armed services, opposition to a nuclear weapons base and so on -
EU involvement would be a side issue.

Problems?They’re not problems; they’re just things that have to be worked
out.Oh, and the Queen is Queen of quite
a few countries – even Canada never removed her from her post when it became
independent in 1982.Far from being a
side issue, though, EU involvement will be right at the heart of the debate, a
turning point upon which we decide which direction we want our nation to head
in.

But
it would irritatingly divert the EU from the other huge problems it has to
grapple with. It would not be an easy ride, you have been warned.

Little old Scotland
would divert the EU?I’d like to be vain
enough to think that Scottish independence is dominating the conversation in
the Brussels steamie but I’m fairly sure that the interest will be understated
and the enduring pragmatism of the EU will take it all in its stride just as it
did when it found a way to accommodate the new state after German unification
in 1990 when there were rapid negotiations to ensure that the five Lander
joining the EU (the old East Germany) were smoothed into the EU in the last
three months of 1990 without much fuss.

Besides which, with
Croatia joining next year, Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, Iceland and the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia all lined up to join, and with Albania, Kosovo
and Bosnia & Herzegovina hoving into view as potential candidate countries,
the EU is expanding.Who seriously
thinks that Scotland would have any trouble from any other EU Member State?

Scotland is a nation
with our own laws already in conformity with the acquis communautaire,
a nation that fits all the criteria of EU membership (mainly as a result of our
current membership) and would be welcomed with open arms if we had been in the
position of having to apply.Scotland,
like the rump UK, will be a successor state to the current UK, though, and we’ll
have to take on the responsibilities and rights that the UK has under
international treaties so we’ll be a Member State as of independence day.If we want to leave the EU we’ll have to
invoke the Lisbon Treaty and negotiate our way out.

1 comment:

"Mr Rehn replied that it is up to the Swedish people to decide on the issue."

The SNP should do the most sensible thing and say that the issue of Scotland being in or out of Europe rests with the Scottish people in a referendum on EU membership. It takes it right out of the Unionists' hands when they bring it up.

The same with currency, the head of state and all the others: I would propose a multi question referendum with membership of EU, NATO, the currency, head of state, etc. as straight yes or no answers after Scotland votes yes. That way the SNP can get on with painting a positive picture of an independent Scotland* to convince the electorate it is the right way forward. Dotting t's and crossing i's - whatever the size of them - can be done after independence is won. Of course, there is nothing to stop the ‘Our position is ...’ with the caveat of ‘decision to be made by the Scottish people.’

*Indeed the SNP are missing a trick here. As the Unionists don't want an independent Scotland (why hasn’t the SNP said to the Unionists “youse don’t even want a referendum, so get yer face oot the question”?) the SNP can paint any picture they want: tory and labour MPs elected to the Scottish parliament must wear makeup and clown shoes when in public. Once the unionists argue about what will and what won’t be a part of an Independent Scotland they are conceding to one.

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